Ellenton is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Manatee County, Florida, set along the south bank of the Manatee River immediately north of Bradenton. The 2020 census counted 4,129 residents, though the community functions as part of the larger Bradenton-Sarasota metropolitan area of Florida's west coast. Its position at the junction of Interstate 75 and U.S. Route 301 gives it a visibility and convenience that belie its modest size, placing it within roughly 25 miles of Sarasota and St. Petersburg and minutes from the Gulf beaches of Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key. The area's history runs deep along the river. In the mid-1800s, the Manatee River supported a cluster of sugar plantations, and the surviving Gamble Mansion, built between 1845 and 1850, stands today as the last antebellum plantation house in South Florida. That heritage is preserved at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park, a landmark that anchors Ellenton's sense of place. Over time, the community evolved from plantation and agricultural land into a residential and retail center, a transition accelerated by its location on major highways. Today Ellenton is best known for the Ellenton Premium Outlets, a regional shopping destination with more than 120 stores, alongside a residential landscape weighted toward active-adult and 55-plus communities. The mix of outlet retail, riverfront living, and retiree-oriented neighborhoods gives Ellenton a dual identity: a convenient commercial crossroads by day and a quiet, amenity-rich community for the people who live there. For buyers and residents, it offers the Gulf Coast lifestyle with the interstate, the beaches, and the services of Bradenton all close at hand.